Product Description

This is the first truly comprehensive reference guide to current Cantonese as used by native speakers. It presents a fresh and accessible description of the language, concentrating on the patterns of use in today's Cantonese, making it the ideal reference source for all users and learners of Cantonese--no matter what the level of study.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1034550 in Books
• Published on: 1994-11-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review

It is fortunate that the long-felt need for a Cantonese grammar should have been socompetently met at the first attempt. This is an excellent book, down to earth, up-to-date, full of insights, replete with well-selected and illuminating examples, and written with minimal reliance on jargon, so that it is accessible to all who are interested in Cantonese. - Professor Hugh Baker, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

'Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar represents the latest effort in writing a dialectal grammar, a grammar that aims to serve language students, teachers, and linguists alike with both challenge and elegance.' - Professor Samuel H.N. Cheung, International Review of Chinese Linguistics

'A cover-to-cover reading leaves the impression that Matthews and Yip's work is undoubtably the reference grammar of Cantonese that we have been waiting for.' - Professor Alain Peyraube, International Review of Chinese Linguistics

'It is fortunate that the long-felt need for a Cantonese grammar should have been socompetently met at the first attempt. This is an excellent book, down to earth, up-to-date, full of insights, replete with well-selected and illuminating examples, and written with minimal reliance on jargon, so that it is accessible to all who are interested in Cantonese.' - Professor Hugh Baker, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

'Matthews and Yip have indeed written a comprehensive grammar, which addresses the needs of Western learners of Cantonese and of general linguists in a thorough and detailed way... the authors have given the Cantonese language a long overdue, rightful place and a proper prominence within the descriptions of Chinese.' - Professor Gisela Bruche-Schulz, Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale

'Matthews and Yip make a formidable team in putting together what is, in essence, the first full-length treatment in English to date of the grammar of modern spoken Cantonese.' - Professor Marjorie Chan, Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association

'The lack of a comprehensive reference grammar of Cantonese has long been a curious and embarrassing situation. Matthews and Yip's work therefore constitutes a landmark in Chinese linguistics.' - Professor Jeroen Wiedenhof, Glot International

Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar represents the latest effort in writing a dialectal grammar, a grammar that aims to serve language students, teachers, and linguists alike with both challenge and elegance. - Professor Samuel H.N. Cheung, International Review of Chinese Linguistics

A cover-to-cover reading leaves the impression that Matthews and Yips work is undoubtably the reference grammar of Cantonese that we have been waiting for. - Professor Alain Peyraube, International Review of Chinese Linguistics

Matthews and Yip have indeed written a comprehensive grammar, which addresses the needs of Western learners of Cantonese and of general linguists in a thorough and detailed way... the authors have given the Cantonese language a long overdue, rightful place and a proper prominence within the descriptions of Chinese. - Professor Gisela Bruche-Schulz, Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale

The book, covering all major areas of Cantonese grammar, is meticulously researchd and carefully edited and proof-read. Written clearly and articualtely, it is very readable for readers from layman to specialist. Examples are plentiful; and idioms and other interesting tidbits are placed here and there within frames to entice and intrigue the reader. Stephen Matthews and Virginia Yip are to be highly commended for their excellent scholarship in producing this immensely useful volume as a resource for a wide readership. This book is a valuable reference source for a grammatical description in English of modern spoken Cantonese and will remain so for many years to come. Professor Marjorie Chan, Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association

Customer Reviews

More than you will ever want to know . . .
This grammar is well written and comprehensive. It is heavy on linguistic terminology, but the language is altogether descriptive. While primarily beneficial to advanced learners, intermediate Cantonese students could find this helpful as well. Matthews also succeeds in lightening up a deep subject with interesting and fun examples. He also helps readers connect with the meanings of the words and phrases by giving both direct translations and the equivalent meaning side-by-side in these examples. The book is the modern definitive work on the Cantonese language. It teaches a complex subject and is complex itself. I recommend the book for anyone interested in understanding the mechanics of Cantonese, or for anyone wanting to find comparisons with Mandarin.

Excellent book for advanced students
Cantonese is traditionally a spoken language, but these days a language must have a standard written grammatical structure in order to survive. This book provides the first intensive study of written Cantonese, often providing a reference to a related Colloquial structure. Great for advanced students or those studying grammatical structure of languages.

Very Well Organized and Documented Concepts
This book is very well written, but is pretty heavy on the linguistic terminology. Nevertheless, I found it quite profound on how all the grammatical concepts are organized and documented. Some of the concepts are even applicable to Mandarin (Putonghua), which makes this great for contrast and comparison to that language. I have yet to find any book that organizes and quantifies grammatical structures in Mandarin; This is ironic considering the instruction of Cantonese seems dissmissed in mainland.

The only one thing that I can fault this book, is the lack of Chinese characters. It uses Yale romanization system to document the concepts, which in and of itself is not bad, but one needs the written Chinese characters in order to understand how a single character can fulfill many grammatical roles. Despite this, this book is invaluable supplement for anyone serious about learning Cantonese.